Homemade sarin was used in attack near Damascus – Lavrov

Russia has enough evidence to assert that homemade sarin was used on August 21 in a chemical attack near Damascus, the same type but in higher concentration than in an Aleppo incident earlier this year, Russian FM Sergey Lavrov said.

“On the occasion of the incident in the vicinity of Aleppo on
March 19, 2013 when the United Nations, under the pressure of
some Security Council members, didn’t respond to the request of
the Syrian government to send inspectors to investigate, Russia,
at the request of the Syrian government, investigated that case,
and this report, i.e. the results of this investigation are
broadly available to the Security Council and publicly,”Lavrov said.

“The main conclusion is that the type of sarin used in that
incident was homemade. We also have evidence to assert that the
type of sarin used on August 21 was the same, only of higher
concentration.”

The minister said he had recently presented his US counterpart
John Kerry with the latest compilation of evidence, which was an
analysis of publicly available information.

“The reports by the journalists who visited the sites, who
talked to the combatants, combatants telling the journalists that
they were given some unusual rockets and munitions by some
foreign country and they didn’t know how to use them. You have
also the evidence from the nuns serving in a monastery
nearby who visited the site. You can read the
evidence and the assessments by the chemical weapons experts who
say that the images shown do not correspond to a real situation
if chemical weapons were used. And we also know about an open
letter sent to President Obama by former operatives of the CIA
and the Pentagon saying that the assertion that it was the
government that used the chemical weapons was a fake.”

Lavrov emphasized that Russia stands fully committed to
implementing the Geneva framework of September 14, a bilateral
agreement with the United States to move forward with the
destruction of Syrian chemical weapons stockpiles under the
Chemical Weapons Organization’s supervision.

The foreign minister, however, reminded that the agreement did
not suggest adopting any UN resolution that mentions immediate UN
Chapter 7 measures against Syria, or rather the potential for the
use of military force.

“We set in that framework which we agreed in Geneva that we
would be very serious about any violation of the obligations
under the Chemical Weapons Convention, we would be very serious
about any use of chemical weapons by anyone in Syria and that
those issues would be brought to the Security Council under
Chapter 7.”

UN resolution within two days?

The draft resolution to back Syria’s disarmament could be
finalized “very soon,” possibly “within the next two
days,” Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov told
the AP.

Although the text of the resolution will include a reference to
Chapter 7 of the UN Charter, Gatilov stressed there will be
“no automaticity in engaging” in military or non-military
actions without a separate discussion at the UN Security Council.

The five permanent members of the Security Council have yet to
agree on a final text of the resolution, though the group has
indicated significant progress is being made.

Russian news agency Interfax rebutted earlier reports on
Wednesday made by Western news agencies that claimed that a deal
between the United States, Russia, France, China and Britain on
wording of the draft resolution on destruction of chemical
weapons in Syria had been reached.

"The alleged report claiming that five Security Council agreed
on the main part of the resolution on Syria is not true. The
Russian delegation was extremely surprised by the appearance of
such information," a source from the Russian delegation told
Interfax.

"This is just their wishful thinking," the spokesman for
Russia's UN delegation said. "It is not the reality. The work
on the draft resolution is still going on," quoted Reuters.

Earlier AFP and Reuters had reported that three Western diplomats
speaking on condition of anonymity indicated that the permanent
members of the Security Council had agreed on a new proposal.

"It seems that things are moving forward," one source told
Reuters, adding that there was "an agreement among the five on
the core.""We are closer on all the key points," he
said.

The envoys told AFP that the draft resolution would allow for
sanctions under Chapter 7 of the UN charter to be considered if
President Bashar al-Assad fails to keep to a Russia-US
disarmament plan.

On Tuesday, on the sidelines of the UNGA US Secretary of State
John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov held a “constructive” meeting and agreed to
continue pushing towards destruction of chemical weapons held by
all sides in Syria under international supervision.